Much of Jalaluddin Rumi’s work was in rhyming couplets and retaining their meaning, thought or metaphor and yet delivering the English in rhythm and rhyme are a challenge, says Farrukh Dhondy who has translated a new collection of the 13th century Persian poet’s verses.

A translation, the India-born British writer said, is a delicate thing and entails rendering a construction from one country, one culture, one century even, into an equally alluring construction in another.

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